Knowing other languages and understanding other cultures is a 21st century skill set for students as they prepare to live and work in a global society. Our ability to use language lies at the centre of the development and expression of our emotions, our thinking and our sense of personal identity.

In Sandwood we create high quality learning experiences for our pupils to develop their Listening & Talking, Reading and Writing skills.

Listening and Talking is developed through carefully designed activities, which provide opportunities to develop awareness of different types of language and structured discussions which may arise from all aspects of the curriculum.

The ability to read fluently and with understanding is one of the most important skills for life.  We aim to develop children’s comprehension skills, functional reading skills, library/reference skills and a love of reading for pleasure.  To help achieve these aims we use a variety of resources.  The main reading schemes used are:

• P1 – P3  Storyworld                
• P4 – P7  Literacy World

There are also opportunities for the children to experience rhyme and poetry and to examine non-fiction texts. 

Our Phonics programme at the early stages follow Glasgow City Council’s guidelines on phonics.  Children are introduced to letter sounds and names.

In Writing, our pupils develop skills in Functional, Personal, Imaginative and Poetry Writing throughout their time in Primary School.  Our writing programme for P1 – P7 uses the schemes ‘Big Writing, ‘Models for Writing,’ and ‘Scholastic Writing.’  This will ensure a breadth and progression of skills as the children move through the school.  Other written work will arise from the reading programmes and topics etc.

In Spelling, from the earliest stages pupils are specifically taught the letter names and sounds.  By the end of P3 we would expect most pupils to be able to read, write and spell properly the first 300 most common words in the English language.

In P3-P7 pupils follow a spelling programme focusing on spelling rules, patterns and common words. 

  Our expectation is by P7 almost all pupils can read and spell the first 1000 common     words.  P7 pupils will further develop their spelling skills through a        personalised individual programme.

We follow the Nelson Handwriting Scheme and try to ensure that children are fluent and legible writers before they leave our school.